Play Arts Kai Bootlegs : Guide to Serial Numbers

Remember when the absence of serial numbers at the bottom of the box is a clear indication of a bootleg/knock-off/overrun figure for Play Arts Kai? Well, I DO, after all, i first brought it up here when i was an unfortunate victim of a local bootlegger HERE and also during another unfortunate close brush with the infamous "Zombie Snake" HERE. After those incidents i dedicated a portion of my time to guarding fellow collectors from bootlegs, establishing a database of tell-tale signs with the help of my PAK comrades. I got a happy ending though somehow since i was refunded by those 2 sellers and the vigilance never stopped from that point onwards...

AUTHENTIC SOLID SNAKE - Similar to Cyborg Ninja, Fakes either don't have those serials or they are a lot bigger.

Battle Dress Snake from Peacewalker. Fakes don't have those serials.

We are aware that for quite some time the bootleggers have upped their game; they now do their own engravings on their cheap bootleg boxes to dupe buyers relying on the serials to check figure authenticity. However, with a sharp eye and thorough familiarization with how the serials should look like you can avoid being a victim. With the help of a good friend, Uzi Enriquez and additional help from Mik Gawaran and Jerome Lim - my comrades from Play Arts Kai Philippines Trading Group - i came up with a guide on the serials of the more popular PAK lines and figures. We'll include samples of the fake serials also for reference, please feel free to refer to the list anytime. P.S. The Final Fantasy 13 figures are exempted from serials since their serials are located inside the box and it's printed in blue/black ink.

Play Arts Kai: The TOP 5 Most UNDERRATED Figures of All Time

A couple of posts downstairs i presented a list of the TOP Overrated Play Arts Kai Figures as perceived by Yours Truly and by the collective opinions of my comrades @ Play Arts Kai Philippines Trading Group. Since the article is pretty much what a niche blogger would consider a success, i decided to do it again, but this time i'm trying to point out those PAKs that nobody really give much heed or attention to though they are, actually, really, really good figures. I'm not going to define UNDERRATED, seems like everybody got the term right for this one. I'm trying to win one for the "little guys" this time, so, without further ado, let's get the ball rolling...

Play Arts Kai Raiden Review - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

As if we haven't had enough of Play Arts Kai Raiden figures last year... Anyway, the human Jack arrived hot on the trail of Liquid Snake and of course, as expected, me and my fellow MGS fans snapped up one for our respective collections as soon as he's out, giving little or no heed at all whether he's a good figure or not. Because of that, this review's pretty much useless already IMO. But then i feel i owe the local PAK community this review of Jack...whether they and YOU like it or not.

The Play Arts Kai Raiden from MGS2: SOL is the 2nd character in this particular MGS storyline and he's got massive shoes to fill in the form of Solidus Snake, one of the best PAK's ever produced.  To be quite frank, i feel i've had enough of Raiden last year so this particular figure wasn't exactly a favorite of mine. I'm not expecting much anyway since i don't think he can match the intensity of the MGRR Raiden figure. In reality, only very few PAKs actually can...

Play Arts Kai: The Top 5 Most Overrated Figures of All Time

I recently did a survey in our group - Play Arts Kai Philippines Trading Group, regarding what my comrades there believe as the 5 MOST OVERRATED PAKs ever released. I have my personal take actually but i wish to get input from them to be fair. I certainly received a lot of picks and, though i may disagree on some, there are inputs that actually changed my personal take.
First let me define Overrate (general term), courtesy of Webster's Learner Dictionary:
over·rate /ˈoʊvɚˌreɪt/ verb
over·rates; over·rat·ed; over·rat·ing

[+ obj] : to rate, value, or praise (someone or something) too highly
▪ The coach tends to overrate the players on his own team.

— overrated adjective [more overrated; most overrated] 
▪ (disapproving) That movie was disappointing and highly/very overrated.

Applying that to the context of Toy/Action Figure Collecting: Overrated figures are those figures who get more attention or praise than what they actually deserve and/or figures that everyone's looking for/and will pay insane amount of money to acquire even though, in reality, they are simply not that good (discounting all the PAKs that are generally panned by fans). Most of the time these figures are way too overpriced though i want to point out that being overpriced isn't exactly a sign of being overrated. Also, it is also different from being just a terrible figure(like Superman) or those with lots of QC issues. I'm afraid some missed the meaning of my query...

Soooooo...with that out of the way, let's get started. (In NO particular order...)

Play Arts Kai Liquid Snake Review - Metal Gear Solid

One of the most anticipated figure on my hitlist for 2013 barely made it in 2013. Yeah, that's the bad-@$$ Evil half of the Twin Snakes, product of Les Enfants Terribles, the dominant clone with inferiority complex and daddy issues: Liquid "goddamn" Snake! And oh, he really hated his twin brother, believing he's got all of Big Boss' recessive traits. Well, I'll be reviewing this figure a bit late...AGAIN, and i'm gonna blame it on the Holiday Season...AGAIN.

If you are an MGS fan and you are reading this i don't think i still need to convince you to get him, i am 99% sure you got him already. If you have Solid Snake you simply need to have his brother and even if you are collecting MGS on a budget Liquid Snake is still an important piece together with Solid, Solidus and of course, one of the many incarnations of Big Boss.

Play Arts Kai: The Best & Worst of 2013

It's that time of the year again Boys and Girls where we rank the BEST Play Arts Kai releases (for last year, of course) and as an added twist, since i'm feeling kinda like Sid the Sloth (goddamn holidays!) i'll be including the absolutely HORRIBLE and disappointing ones from the depths of the PAK hierarchy - residing beside the Commander Sheps and Sheva Alomars in the bottomless pit. Majority of the entries are personal picks (yeah, so what? write your own article if you disagree, LOL) though i did get some opinions from my comrades @ Play Arts Kai Philippines Trading Group. You'll be surprise that the turnout is pretty much unanimous...minus some which are obviously written down by damn fanboys.

5. BEST - Play Arts Kai Liquid Snake - Metal Gear Solid & Captain Harlock

"Did you like my sunglasses?"

Photo courtesy of Edzy Santiago

It's about goddamn time! The "superior" Twin from the Les Enfants Terribles Project barely made the 2013 deadline but what a photo finish it was. His likeness and details are awesome, typical PAK Metal Gear figure. Do i need to elaborate further or do you want his Stinger to do the talking?